


Cry-Baby Girls

by Lefaym



Category: Cry-Baby (1990)
Genre: Character Study, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 04:46:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2838467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lefaym/pseuds/Lefaym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a Cry-Baby Girl isn't really about Cry-Baby at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cry-Baby Girls

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LovelyPoet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelyPoet/gifts).



> LovelyPoet, when I saw your prompt for one of my favourite childhood movies in my assignment, I had to watch it again -- and this little piece came out of it!
> 
> Thanks to in_the_bottle for the beta.

The thing about being a Cry-Baby Girl, Pepper thinks, is that it’s not _really_ about Cry-Baby at all. Oh, they use his name alright, and it protects them from some of the crap that gets thrown their way by the Squares and a helluva lot of the Drapes too. But it’s not about _him_. It’s about how they fit into the world -- or don’t fit, at the case may be.

Pepper’s never been all that good at fitting into anything. She didn’t fit into the pretty dresses that the other girls wore when they were small, and she fit even less when she got knocked up for the first time. She laughed when they tried to lecture her about it at school; when they told her she should feel ashamed. Pepper loves her babies, and she enjoyed making ‘em too. There ain’t nothing to be ashamed of there, as far as she can see.

But then, the Mrs Vernon-Williamses of this world are always trying to make the Cry-Baby Girls feel ashamed, no matter what the reason. They’d like Hatchet to be ashamed of herself too, to hide away where they don’t have to look at her. They’d like her to wish she was someone else. But Hatchet, she won’t do that. Pepper remembers once, when they were ten or so, watching Allison V-W walk by, so pretty and good as you please, and some of the other Drape girls, they wanted to throw mud at her, to show her what for. Not Hatchet though -- Hatchet just smiled, ran her thumb along the blade of her knife, and said, “Why should we wanna be like that, anyway?”

Being “like that” has never been Wanda’s thing either. Pepper always laughs when she thinks of it. Wanda’s the one that the boys are supposed to like, and the boys do like her too. They tell stories about what they did with her last Saturday, and everyone believes ‘em. Wanda doesn’t care so much, she’s happy to let them think what they want. But it’s not the boys who are getting into Wanda’s pants, it’s the girls. Some of the nice, sweet good girls, too, girls like Allison. Yeah, Allison is exactly the type that Wanda goes for, but Pepper knows that Wanda won’t make a move, not yet, not while Allison and Cry-Baby are still all wrapped up in each other. Give it time, Pepper thinks. Cry-Baby knows that the world don’t fit into neat little boxes, and he won’t try to stop Allison when she wants to explore some more.

Allison will explore, that’s for certain. Allison, who _could_ fit into everything, but she chooses not to. Allison who’ll be off to college next year, but she won’t do it the way they expect her to, oh no. She’s going to get ideas, Allison will, and she’ll use ‘em to change the way things are done. She’ll pretend to fit, for just a while, and then all those Squares around her, they’ll realise their mistake -- or maybe they won’t. Maybe, like Mrs Vernon-Williams, they will have changed before they even know what’s hit ‘em.

And that’s what it is about the Cry-Baby Girls, that’s why none of them really fit -- ‘cause they’re the ones that do the hitting, and they fight back when the world hits them. They ain’t supposed to, just like boys ain’t supposed to cry, and Drapes and Squares ain’t supposed to mix. But they do it anyway, and Pepper certainly ain’t gonna stop.


End file.
